Spring-Summer 2005

The Digital Divide is a slippery fish but trying to grasp its complex and dynamic nature is absolutely critical to finding solutions. National level studies and those covering particular regions, states, and communities teach us to avoid a “one-size-fits-all” understanding of the Digital Divide. For example, Ohio is both bellwether and exceptional. Ohio has often been called “bellwether” because of the representative features of the state's population. As Eric Rademacher, CoDirector of Public Polling at the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati said, “You have a wide variety of viewpoints from extreme conservatism to extreme liberalism, a wide array of socioeconomic segments and of sectors.” Ohio is also exceptional because of economic and social conditions that frequently put it in the lowest tiers of achievement; at the same time, Ohio has some of the most exemplary public libraries and CTCs in the nation.

Recent studies show us that there continues to be an alarming Access Divide along racial, income, and education lines. In a national study of low-income adults I conducted with Karen Mossberger and Caroline Tolbert, we found evidence to reaffirm that those with low-income or little education were much less likely to have Internet access at home than those of higher income or education and that African Americans and Latinos were much less likely to have this than Whites. These trends are also confirmed by US Census data, collected in 2001, and the monthly tracking survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

While a lack of access continues to be an important feature of the Digital Divide, we now think of the Digital Divide as much more than a gap in access to information and communication technologies (ICT). In addition to the persistent Access Divide, there is a growing body of evidence related to a divide of ICT skills and use. And many studies go beyond the descriptive and try to answer the “so what?” sorts of questions that cross practice and research community lines as well as lines of academic disciplines and even social values.

E-government is an area of interest for many researchers and advocates, for example. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 54% of all Americans contact the government for some reason during a typical year but 72% of Internet users are more likely to contact the government than those who are not Internet users. Most people (42%) use the telephone to make contact, while 29% visit Websites, and 18% use e-mail.

There is also a great deal of interest, activity, and funding opportunities related to developing electronic health products and programs. One of the objectives of Healthy People 2010, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with programs and projects at many levels, is to see that individuals and health care providers “use information strategically to improve health.” Internet access and information literacy skills necessary to find, evaluate, and use health information are included in the goals of Healthy People 2010 , and studies in this arena over the last few years provide another source of supporting evidence for the Digital Divide, one that, in fact, shows growing inequalities in accessing basic life resources. “[R]esearch indicates that even after targeted health communication interventions, low-education and low-income groups remain less knowledgeable and less likely to change behavior than higher education and income groups, which creates a knowledge gap and leaves some people chronically uninformed .” (From Healthy People 2010, Chapter 11 citing Freimuth, V.S. "The Chronically Uninformed: Closing the Knowledge Gap in Health," in Ray, E.B., and Donohew, L., eds. Communication and Health: Systems and Applications . Hillsdale , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990.)

Keeping these national trends and descriptions in mind, we can now look at Ohio and see where the national and state pictures overlap and where they diverge. According to Quick Facts from the U.S. Census Bureau (http://quickfacts.census.gov), Ohio is currently experiencing special economic difficulties, as attested to by a state unemployment rate of 5.9% for January 2005, as compared to the national rate of 5.4%. Regionally, only Michigan is higher at 7.1%. Regarding education and its relationship to attracting jobs and industries and keeping people in the state, only 21.1% of Ohio 's population older than 25 years has a Bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 24.4% nationally.

Data from Ohio for the Pew Internet & American Life Project studies show a notably lower degree of computer use in work, school and home and Internet access than in other states.

Given all these considerations, it is reasonable to urge Ohio to continue to pay close attention to the Digital Divide.

Mary Stansbury is an Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University and co-author of “Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide” (Georgetown University Press, 2003).